omubarak mubarakbed [In the Islamic world nature fills a power vacuum with – ta-da! – Islam. df] 8/6/2011 <http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=232703> Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood holds vote in public By REUTERS Most popular and organized political force in Egypt was banned, harassed semi-tolerated, during 30-year rule of former president Hosni Mubarak. CAIRO - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood held a public internal election on Saturday for the first time in its history in a display of openness before a parliamentary election in November. The Brotherhood, Egypt's most popular and organized political force, was banned and often harassed, but semi-tolerated, during the 30-year rule of former president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted by an uprising in February. "The group is doing this now as it wants to set a model in democracy and transparency ahead of the parliamentary vote," Mustapha al-Sayyid, political science professor at Cairo University, said of the Brotherhood's public vote. "Having an internal election in public will certainly increase the credibility of the group among the public," he said. The Brotherhood is generally seen as the best prepared group for the November election in which its newly formed "Freedom and Justice" party will contest half the assembly's seats. Founded in the 1920s, the organization has endured years of repression and maintained strong grassroots support in Egypt's conservative Muslim society partly through a broad social program. It won a fifth of the seats in the 2005 parliamentary election when it fielding its candidates as independents. But the Brotherhood has lately been suffering from internal squabbles and criticism about its vague economic and political plans. It has also come under fire for some public statements in which it took the side of the military council which took over from Mubarak, rather than backing groups seeking faster change. Saturday's vote, to which journalists were invited, was to pick replacements for three senior figures who resigned from the Brotherhood's administrative body in April to join the Freedom and Justice Party, which the group says will be independent. The three men are party leader Mohamed Mursi, deputy leader Essam Elarian and secretary-general Mohamed Saed Elkatatny. "The elections taking place in this open manner is one of the gains of the blessed revolution that has allowed freedom of expression and granted freedom to all Egyptian citizens, including the Muslim Brotherhood," the group's guide, Mohamed Badie, said in a speech at the event at a Cairo hotel. The voters were members of the Brotherhood's 122-strong decision-making Shura Council. The Brotherhood then hosted a Ramadan Iftar banquet, at a cost put by a local newspaper at about a million Egyptian pounds ($168,000), with guests expected to include military council members, government officials and presidential candidates. ### Related: Andrew C. McCarthy, <http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/273865> Sharia is not a figment of our imagination. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-os...@yahoogroups.com. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor biso...@intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: osint-dig...@yahoogroups.com osint-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
